If Bernie Sanders Runs For President, It Won’t Be as an Independent: “I will not be a spoiler”

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Sanders said he would take a different approach to the Democratic Party’s strategy of trying to beat Republicans in the big money game. Rather than view grassroots activism as a way to get elected, Sanders wants to make it the norm in progressive politics.

Over 3,000 activists and donors joined a Democracy for America (DFA) conference call with Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) on Wednesday night to discuss how Democrats can move forward their agenda after losing control of the Senate. Amid the uncertainty of a Republican majority in Congress and a President itching for bipartisan compromise, DFA members sought to alleviate one nagging question: Who will be the progressive standard bearer in 2016?

Naturally, “Will you run for president in 2016?” was the first question DFA Executive Director Charles Chamberlain asked Sanders. Though not definitive, his answer was enough to leave these activists hopeful.

“I am giving very serious consideration to it, but before you make a decision of that magnitude, … you have to make sure that you can do it well,” Sanders said. “So what we are doing is reaching out to folks all over this country trying to determine whether or not we can put the grassroots organization together that we need.”

Sanders knows he will have to rely on grassroots mobilization to have a fighting chance at being elected, because his campaign will take on every monied interest. “If I run, we’ll be taking on the billionaire class,” he said. “That’s Wall Street, the drug companies, the military industrial complex.”

To the dismay some idealists, Sanders rejected the idea of running for president as an independent. “No matter what I do, I will not be a spoiler,” Sanders said. “I will not play that role in helping to elect some right-wing Republican as President of the United States.”

Chamberlain responded by reminding Sanders that DFA already has some of the grassroots Sanders needs. “I think that you can count on a lot of DFA members to be right there behind you backing you up if you decide to run,” Chamberlain said. “I hope that you do.”

Until now, progressive groups like DFA have placed their 2016 hopes in Massachusetts’s Elizabeth Warren, who has flatly denied having any presidential ambitions. She has a few months to change her mind before she has to start raising money to remain a serious contender, but, unless she or Sanders runs, progressive populists are not likely to have a candidate to rally around. It’s hard to see DFA and MoveOn.org activists turning out for outgoing Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley or former Senator Jim Webb, who have both expressed interest in running.

Sanders spent the remainder of the call establishing his progressive vision for the country, both wooing and being wooed by his audience in equal measure.

Sanders drew a sharp contrast between himself and Obama on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Reiterating his opposition to all free trade deals, including NAFTA, CAFTA and permanent normal trade relations with China, which Sanders says has cost America 3 million jobs. He described TPP, a free trade deal that was negotiated largely in secret, “a losing proposition for American workers.”

Though TPP’s passage seems likely with Republicans in control of the Senate, Sanders expressed some optimism that an unlikely coalition between Democrats and Tea Party Republicans would be enough to kill the agreement. “We’re going to really need some coalition politics, bringing together some very, very strange bedfellows,” he said.

The most significant other measure he hopes to accomplish in the next year is extending Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) protections to “supervisory” workers. Under current law, workers in a supervisory role who make over $23,600 per year are not entitled to receive overtime pay. The President recently directed Labor Secretary Thomas Perez to study how to extend the FLSA to cover these workers via executive action as he similarly ordered for white collar workers last year.

“My guess is that within a couple of months, you will hear a changing in the Labor Standards Act that will enable a whole lot of folks to get time and a half who today do not,” Sanders said.

Throughout the call, Sanders appealed to the working-class voters who feel that the Democratic Party has left them behind: “There are millions of people out there who feel that Democrats have not been strong enough in standing up for the working class, the middle class of this country and taking on big money interests.”

Sanders said he would take a different approach to the Democratic Party’s strategy of trying to beat Republicans in the big money game. Rather than view grassroots activism as a way to get elected, Sanders wants to make it the norm in progressive politics.

“It is not only absolutely imperative that we mobilize huge numbers of people for an election, but that those people stay mobilized after the election,” Sanders said. “Because if there is a mistake that President Obama has made, I think he has not been strong in maintaining the ties with the grassroots that helped elect him president.”

As president, Sanders told New York that he would organize massive marches on Washington to demonstrate to members of Congress who really hold power in government: “[W]hen these congressmen come by the White House and they’re beholden to the Koch brothers, the super-PACs, or the oil companies, I will say, ‘Do what you want, but first do one thing for me: Look out the window.’ ”

Whether he decides to run or not, Sanders remains the foremost progressive champion of the power that individual citizens could have over government: “Sometimes people think, ‘Well I made a phone call, I signed a petition, it doesn’t really matter.’ Well guess what? It really does matter.”

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Well, it's been a year since this article and I am concerned. Apparently, the Democratic Party just allotted Hillary Clinton a bunch of super delegates that effectively creates a tie for New Hampshire in which Bernie crushed her in the popular vote. This does not bode well. I think he should now run as the Independent he always was. The Democrats are going to continue to "give" these delegates to Clinton. What a mess.I tend to agree with Michael Cavlan. He is speaking truths and he does not wear a tin foil hat. You may refer to Chris Hedges work on the Liberal left for a good synthesis of the problem. I know I had figured it out long before Hedges. It is when you experience losing a lot that you can see the realities of our political system. As a very very low income disabled person living for years w/o proper health care with a crushing chronic disease (poverty is indeed the outcome of no health care when one needs it--unless of course one is independently wealthy or has family who is), I too have watched the continual selling out of the so called liberal, progressive left over the years. When push comes to shove the so called "progressive" wing of the DemParty always caves if the vote is close--whether it be for yet another "emergency supplemental war bill" or for health care. Even Dennis Kucinich, whom I backed for years and thought was unbreakable when it came to ethical and persistent stands on ALL the issues, accquised in the end on the ACA completely shutting the door on his long fight for his bill HR. 676 MediCare for All (the original Medicare prior to it being tweaked by Congress). He knew that Obama et. al. was never going to keep in the public option of the ACA. That's when I knew that it was all untenable. The controlling elite that run both parties are never going to release their grip until we are in the streets and literally spilling blood as it was in the late 1800's and early 1900's which spearheaded the populists to form an official Populist Party which eventually forced the then Big Industrial Corporations to give up their enslavement of the workers be they railroads,textiles, farmers or steel.

Posted by ncfnorcalrep8 on 2016-02-11 11:23:46

You lost this debate.

Additionally, tarring Bernie with the brush of 'corporatist' because he had to make a choice--the ACA or the status quo (and don't even try the "it's the same thing" routine, that's cowardly)--shows how shallow and misinformed you are.

You really impress yourself though. I'll give you that.

Posted by Red Cabbage on 2015-05-24 14:40:19

Every time I read about this guy, I raise my fists and nod my head in amazement that someone is finally speaking my language as a presidential candidate. Go, Bernie, GO!

Posted by Kaitlin Rush on 2015-05-02 11:16:04

I completely disagree with your assessment on Bernie. I also happen to like a lot of his stances, especially his stance at letting Saudi Arabia handling ISIS. Most moderate have been voted out of congress. The far left and far right are far out there. I'd vote for him.

Posted by Leon Penn on 2015-03-10 20:29:07

Wake up! I am not a Dem. I am a green. Environmentalism is the only -ism I support. Any rational environmentalist position, embraces social equity and environmental justice, Fortunately I do not operate in a binary universe that is unaware of the broad spectrum of the social fabric and am aware of the need to find common cause with others beyond your level of lock-step anger at anyone who does not worship your my way or the highway perspective.

Posted by miknel on 2015-03-01 12:42:49

You are literally too stupid to have discussion with. Seriously. I was very active in Occupy Minnesota (i helped organize the street medics) The issue of Obama, the AJ Eric Holder and "progressive" Dem mayors is pretty common knowledge in the Occupy Movement. Not Jesse Ventura.However you are a delusional "progressive" Democrat and so as such there really is no point in discussing politics with you. No amount of easily verifiable facts will change you or your delusional belief system.

Posted by Michael Cavlan RN on 2015-02-28 22:35:11

WOW! Your getting your talking points from Jesse Ventura! "coordinate the crushing of the Occupy Wall Street movement" WOW again, explain how Occupy Wall Street" was crushed? Seems to me, that OWS was the beginning of a national movement focusing attention on the"1%" and their exploitation of the other 99%. You are asserting "truthy" crap like Dems and Republicans are the same... Thats about as intelligent as saying "red and green" are the same thing because they are both colors. Socialism, communism, Totalitarinism libertarianism, conservatism ,and yes, liberalism are all failed ideologies.

Posted by miknel on 2015-02-28 19:37:28

Actually Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura was the person who coined the phrase. I just used it as it works. Demi and Brewpubs are two gangs fighting over the spoils is jesse's central theme. One that i agree with. As for the Dems destroying the peace movement, that is well documented. John kerry in 2004 sucked it dry. that is more a reflection on the peace movement though.

However in 2012 president Barack Obama, his AJ Eric Holder and about 20 odd "progressive" Democratic party mayors did in fact have a phone conference to coordinate the crushing of the Occupy Wall Street movement going on all over the nation.Again very easy to verify. However if you are a dumbed down Democrat or Republican you will not believe it. You Dems are literally just as delusional as the Tea baggers.

You respond with "mockery" and return with verifiable facts

Posted by Michael Cavlan RN on 2015-02-27 13:36:53

Mockery is not an attack, it is a form of ridicule as is speaking of "Dumbcrips and Republibloods" Your assertion that "Dems can kill the peace movement and progressive politics" demeans both. and is laughable.

Posted by miknel on 2015-02-27 10:25:09

These kind of personal attacks are all you corporatist apologists have.

Posted by Michael Cavlan RN on 2015-02-26 20:12:16

Where do I sign up for the tinfoil hat brigade? I will gladly hide out in a secret attic and help broadcast messages to the allies. Oh, no! the allies are the corporate apologists are the occupiers! Are we now all assigned to the hell of your paranoid imaginations?

Posted by miknel on 2015-02-26 10:32:32

LOLOL Yup. there is a HUGE difference between the Dumbcrips and Republibloods. The Dems can kill the peace movement and progressive politics. That makes them the much more effective evil. that makes them the greater evil.

Oh yes and show all you corporatist apologists for what you really are. Collaborators with the enemy.

We are in corporate occupied America. Just like Nazi occupied France during WWII. the Republicans and the Nazi party. The Dems are the Vichy French. Collaborating with the enemy.

Posted by Michael Cavlan RN on 2015-02-25 14:18:30

How about Thomas Gettering for president? he is better known than Chris hedges and has a deeper base. Plus he is a lot farther left.

Posted by miknel on 2015-02-24 23:52:13

smoking a lot of medical pot, are we? So what if the Captian lied? and the dice are loaded? If you cannot see the difference in R's and D's, you don't even know your alphabet.

Posted by miknel on 2015-02-24 23:49:13

Agreed 100%. which is precisely the reason to not work within the two party system. It gives them a legitimacy they they and their corporate media cheerleaders most richly do not deserve. You do NOT run third party to "win" when winning under the current corporate system means that you have to sell out to win. No indeed- you run to EXPOSE the fraudulence of the current corporate corrupted two party system and their propaganda wing- the corporate media.

Recent surveys show that approx 33% of young people consider themselves to be Socialists. There is your base for the future. Not sold out middle ages "middle class" Americans who support folks like Billy Bob Clinton or his wife- Killary Wall Street Queen Klinton.

Bernie Sanders will not do that. Thank God. It means that a real Socialist can run and start the long long process of organizing a real resistance to the current system.

Posted by Michael Cavlan RN on 2015-02-03 12:18:02

While I agree with you that there aren't enough true liberals in the public eye these days, I sense you sincerely believe an unabashed, over-the-top socialist would be the best candidate. I hope not, and not because of his/her ideology. The right wing (in BOTH parties) and the corporate media that serves them have vilified and turned the word "socialist" into such a pejoration that most of the barely interested, uninvolved, and completely misled voting public would run in horror about a socialist candidate on the ballot. I'm actually concerned that Senator Sanders will have an uphill battle getting anybody in the Democratic Party to take him seriously because he calls himself a socialist, but if he and they can get past the corporate propaganda and the Wall Street owned party "leadership," and actually listen to the man (and research his record) I think he might catch on and get some traction. He's just going to have to get very aggressive about getting known BEFORE the primaries and making the deliberate decision to call/expose the media on their games of voter and candidate manipulation. If he goes along with them and plays their game he doesn't stand a chance. Running any candidate in a third party is political suicide right now because the two major corporate parties and the media that promotes them have colluded to keep all third party and alternate candidates out of the debates and our electoral process. They are virtually invisible to the voting public - BY DESIGN. The only way to combat that is to force the media to invite those alternative candidates to all debates, and it will never happen until MILLIONS of us demand it happen very loudly and very often. BTW, do you remember in 2008 when Hillary and another Democratic candidate (I can't remember who it was at this time) got caught on an open microphone suggesting nobody but the top money makers should be included in the debates? It is no coincidence that Hillary is corporate greed's top choice for the 2016 Democratic nomination.

Posted by Fool_me_twice_shame_on_ME on 2015-02-02 20:37:01

Chris hedges. Please refer to above comment.

cheers.

Posted by Michael Cavlan RN on 2015-02-02 19:28:39

Wasn't that the job of Barack Obama? he was the great progressive who took the crown from Killary Klinton. Before that it was Dennis Kucinich, before that Howard Dean..........

Your party is dead Brother. Good.

Posted by Michael Cavlan RN on 2015-02-02 13:13:45

Only true if you are a DNC corporate apologist. I happen to know lots of actual progressives who understand exactly what a fraud Senator Bernie Sanders is. Sanders is being put on disp[lay to try and make the Dems and this rotten system appear legitimate. You Dems are not and your rotten corporate corrupted system is not either.

Oh and FYI- Killary Klinton WILL be the DNC anointed one. Democrats are just as delusional as Tea Baggers. Seriously. the game is rigged. As for the comment "even better than Elizabeth Warren......" REALLY- You Dems have sunk that low that you consider Elizabeth Warren is a progressive? Man- that makes my point about just how delusional you folks are.

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see Chris Hedges run for president. maybe as a Socialist (a real one- not like fake Bernie) or even better- as a GREEN PARTY CANDIDATE.

Posted by Michael Cavlan RN on 2015-02-02 13:12:04

So who is a better choice than Sanders?You haven't convinced anyone that he's not a good candidate. He's even better than Elizabeth Warren..

Posted by Kevin Schmidt on 2015-02-02 01:23:33

The democratic party was stolen from the people. Let's steal it back. Let the Clinton and Obama fake-democrats run as a third party. Remember Clinton's "third way" of governing? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...

Connor Jones' report that Sanders has decided he will not run as an independent remains unconfirmed. If Jones has facts to support his contention, he has yet to present them.

The quote that Jones uses to support his contention is one that Bernie has been saying for a long time. In fact, Bernie said it in a interview by Bill Moyers aired on PBS months ago. In the Moyers interview Bernie declared he "would not be a spoiler," AND that he hadn't decided whether he would run as an independent or in the Democratic Party's primary and that, "he saw advantages to both approaches."

In fact, an article by Paul Bedard in The Washington Examiner, dated January 27, 2015, reporting on the same conference call as Jones's piece does, stated that Sanders was still considering an independent run. Contrary to Jones' piece, Bedard offers a quote that backs up his report. "“There are advantages and disadvantages” to both, he told members of the progressive Democracy for America in a conference call on which the Washington Examiner was invited to join.

“There are millions of people out there who feel the Democrats have not been strong enough in standing up for the working class, the middle class of this country and taken on big money interests. That suggests running as an independent,” he said.http://www.washingtonexaminer....

Posted by jnack on 2015-01-29 12:58:56

I wonder if people are hearing what they want to hear. That is a common problem with politicians who are playing to multiple audiences. Here's an article based on the same phone call that says the opposite of In These Times:

"Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is under intense pressure to run for president as a Democrat and not as a 'spoiler' independent who could undercut support for the eventual nominee, according to several progressives.

"But Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, hasn’t decided which direction to go.

“'There are advantages and disadvantages' to both, he told members of the progressive Democracy for America in a conference call on which the Washington Examiner was invited to join.

“'There are millions of people out there who feel the Democrats have not been strong enough in standing up for the working class, the middle class of this country and taken on big money interests. That suggests running as an independent,' he said."

I know In These Times leans in favor of running as a Democrat, so maybe they heard what they wanted. I was not on the call so I have no idea. Time will tell.

Posted by kevinzeese on 2015-01-29 11:52:02

Absolutely. Taking away the pro-Zionist issue.... Bernie Sanders talks a good game. He talks real good. However his actions are always different. Take Single payer for example. he talked good about the ned for Single payer and why the "affordable care act" was bad. But then when it came time- he folded like a cheap suit and supported the "corporate insurance assistance to stop Single Payer Bill" which is what Obama-Romneycare- Heritage Foundation care really is. Speaking of Single payer- The "socialist" Sanders has been dead quiet on how the VERMONT Governor, Democrat Peter Shumlin, who campaigned on Single payer- when elected then immediately abandoned Single payer. VERMONT Governor. Bernie has been dead quiet about that. Instead the "Socialist" Sanders has been doing nothing but mouthing corporatist Democratic party talking points about the eeevvviiillllll Republicans. Never about the evil Democrats and their complicity.

Posted by Michael Cavlan RN on 2015-01-27 20:59:39

could you explain your grievances regarding bernie sanders? the israel thing is one. in what sense is he a corporate apologist?

Posted by Kneel on 2015-01-27 20:26:45

Bernie Sanders is a just one more, corporate apologist sell out fraud. As well as a supporter of the racist Zionist state of israel. I for one am DELIGHTED that Bernie "Fold Like A Cheap Suit" Sanders is not running Independent. It leaves room for a real Socialist and/or progressive to run.